1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to an encoding system. More specifically, the present invention relates to a rate control method that is employed in a motion compensated encoder.
2. Description of the Related Art
Demands for lower bit-rates and higher video quality requires efficient use of bandwidth. To achieve these goals, the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) created the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) created the ISO/IEC international Standards 11172 (1991) (generally referred to as MPEG-1 format) and 13818 (1995) (generally referred to as MPEG-2 format), which are incorporated herein in their entirety by reference. Although these encoding standards were very effective, new and improved encoding standards, e.g., H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, have been developed.
H.264/MPEG-4 AVC is a new video coding standard that achieves data compression by utilizing the coding tools, such as spatial and temporal prediction, transform and quantization, entropy coding, and etc. Unlike other existing video coding standards, H.264 blends the transform and quantization operations. Hence, the rate control methods designed based upon other existing video coding standards, for example, the MPEG-2 TM5 rate control, may not readily be applicable to H.264 encoder directly.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a rate control method that can be deployed in new encoding standards such as H.264/MPEG-4 AVC.